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"Wow, I've never seen a deity with such a putrid temple, Deceiver." With a torch in his hand and a gas mask on his face, Dalang carefully walked down a seemingly endless tunnel.

"Yeah, I know, Boar-Skin," P10 replied. "Cave trolls make lousy roommates. They are supposed to guard the temple, not trash it."

"I believe ya. Ungrateful bastards. Hired some of them near Jotunheim to carry some heavy stuff. The next day, they disappeared with our food and mead. Well, they became trophies on Thor's chariot later on. Unlucky dimwits." Dalang's muffled yet articulated voiced echoed through the ancient architecture.

"I think those are cave giants, not cave trolls. There is a difference."

"Whatever."

Bones and bodies of different creatures littered across the large marbled clearings ahead of them.

"Ah...Shit. Looks like they turned your sacred ground into their feeding ground and died here." Jöfurr looked around with the help of his torch. "Interesting, firearm shells scattered everywhere. Some Sapiens must've put them down."

"And they robbed me." P10 stared at the empty chests and shelves and sighed. "Looks like I'll have to make a trip to get them back. Damn it"

"Anything I can help with? They just ran out of bounties at the HQ."

"Nah, this is not your type of job. No sabotaging, no fighting, you will be useless." P10 denied his request.

"All right, god of deception. No need to hurt my feelings, alright?"

"Speaking of uselessness." P10 turned his head to Dalang. "You've learned shapeshifting before?"

"Nah, I was Freyr's underling, not Loki's."

"What about the East? They didn't teach shapeshifting?"

"Nah, closed-guarded secrets, classic Nine States's bureaucracy." Dalang shook his head and said.

"What about the times you took the shape of a Boar and fought?" P01 asked.

"Well, a gift from Demeter for freeing her daughter. A Fitting reward for some who used to wear a set of golden boar armor and...." Dalang explained while examining the scattered skeletons.

"Wait. Do you feel that, Boar-Skin?" P10 interrupted him.

"Yeah, this whole place feels like a waste of time. You promised me wine and dine, not search and find!"

"Focus, you are not just helping a friend; I will pay you, too. Finest vinery from the wine god himself and ciders made out of the Golden Apple. I promise."

"Deal and Say no more, brother; we will discuss my payment when the investigation is done, and conclusions are drawn." A contract with a god, that meant maximum effort.

"Wind is coming from ahead, and there should be only walls there. That is what I meant." P10 explained.

"Get that torch away from my face and let me have a good sniff." Dalang handed P10 his torch, took off his gas mask, and squatted on the floor, taking a deep breath, and started doing his job. A keen sense of olfaction has always been one of Dalang's intrinsic powers.

"Biofuel, gun-powder, blood. It seems they've built something beneath your temple. This way." Dalang took back his torch, put back his snout-shaped gasmask, and started leading.

"I think the Sapiens dug a hole behind my temple and caught the cave trolls off guard. They then proceeded to raid the temple and steal my treasure."

"Changed your mind? Still no burning and killing?" Dalang asked eagerly. A hunt always sounded fun to him.

"We'll see. I will notify you when we need to get our hands dirty." P10 subtly agreed to solve the conflict with violence if necessary.

Behind some piled debris and demolished marbles they discovered a tunnel with clean cuts of concrete and steel railings. Sapien bunker for sure. More bloodstains and bullet shells littered across the floor.

"Cave Trolls fought back and pushed the Sapiens back to their bunker, I assume." Dalang squatted down and took a good sniff of the coagulated blood. "Sapiens were using the wrong bullets against them. They probably killed the younglings in the cave and thought they killed the adults."

"See those spots on the wall where the paint has come off like being scraped?" Dalang pointed at the wall and said. "I guess that the trolls made themselves some kind of portable cover and pushed through this stairway. Probably rolled a boulder and gravity did the rest."

"Crude, but smart," P10 commented. "Seems like they made the raiders pay with blood. Let's see how much trouble they had caused the Sapiens.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

They advanced. The stairway was as dark as it was quiet. A broken door with special symbols on it laid ahead.

"Ahh, I see, this is one of the old metro stations made by the ancient Sapiens. Do you feel the wind? We are in an open space now."

"Yeah, bad news. They are aiming at us already." Green and red traces of light started to glow around them.

With a loud clanging sound, all the searchlights have been turned on and aimed at them, blinding both of them. Bullets started to rain on them continuously. Deafening gunfire echoed throughout the time-worn transportation center.

A spherical divinity shield blocked down all the bullets. One should never pick a fight with a deity near his temple. Homegame advantage was what the Sapiens would call it.

"I cannot hold it forever, figure something out." P10 telepathically communicated with Dalang. "My shield only works with bullets. Watch out for rockets and grenades!"

Dalang reached for his celestial pocket and snatched the stone he took from the Sky-Punisher during his trial. A tent-sized dome made out of rubbles covered the two of them to keep all low-velocity projectiles from going through P10's divinity dome.

"If they have artillery I will dig a way out." Dalang promised.

Just as P10 suspected, grenades followed. The two could barely stand on their feet as pulses of shockwaves still hit them through the dome.

"Where did they get this firepower? And this started to feel like a trap to me." Dalang delivered his thoughts to P10.

"Never needed it much anyway. I am so used to the darkness. Never knew why you handed me a torch in the first place." P10 said.

"All right, you stay here, I am gonna go have a look and see if I can cause any damage." Dalang covered his body with pieces of concrete, rebars, and tiles and made himself into a Golem, just like how the Sky-Punisher did it.

Eventually, the shooting stopped before P10's divinity ran out. Dalang shattered his rubble dome, jumped up, and sent out his armor pieces like a disco ball of destruction. He finally got the chance to see what was shooting at them: automatic turrets and grenade launchers. They were all out of ammunition and he regretted smashing them. Tech like that is welcomed anywhere.

"Finally it's quiet." P10 dismantled his divinity shield and sighed. "Seems they don't want me to retrieve my belongings peacefully."

"Yeah, now I know what killed the cave trolls. Also, you feel the vibration and hear the roaring sound? There is a train coming our way, P10. There is still time for me to break the rails and force it to stop, though."

"Nah, I got questions to ask. I'll do the talking. You can find a place to ambush in case it gets ugly."

"All right. I will dig a hole and hide somewhere." Dalang replied. "If they are equipped with Tech like these, it'll be an annoying fight. Don't take this alone. We are not that immortal if EMPs and Railgun are concerned."

"Have faith, Boar-Warrior. This is my land and my temple, and I have granted you access to the divinity of my temple. Well, what was left of it. Use it to arm and defend yourself." P10 picked up a piece of rebar and spun it in his palms.

"Name Revelation time?" Dalang asked.

No matter how lesser or how powerful they are, deities cannot grant blessings or damnation without revealing who they are. After all, divinity flows through everything, and only immortals and gods can invoke its power.

Names and tales. The two inalienable components of this fifth world.

"I am the soul shrouded in the Night;

I am the blade disguised in delight

And the slithering Serpent's venomous Bite;

Dread, not, for I will weave you a spindle of lies,

Ha! Cry, Wry, Hide!

Thy hallowed mind is where my Falsehood resides.

And it is I

Dolus, Olympia's wight."

As the words were being chanted, a mantle of dark feathers appeared on Dolus's back. A pale-beaked owl mask and a pair of goat horns covered his head and face. The rebar in his hands turned into a metal serpent, stretched into a cane. The assembling was almost chimeric.

"Show off." Dalang grinned.

"Try something, you got a power-up, too. Consider this part of my payment for your aid." The transformation has changed his voice.

"Alright, now we are talking! I can feel the divinity from your temple creeping up on me. It's time to use some borrowed power." He closed his fists and felt every piece of gravel and every grain of sand surrounding him.

"Thank you, friend, it's been so long since the last time I was empowered like this. Oh, how have I missed the good old days." Dalang stumped his foot, breaking the ground beneath, and dived into the debris like it was water for him.

Dolus broke the last few searchlights and returned the railway platform to its pitch-black state.

…...

The humming sound approached, the brakes screeched, hatches opened, a cluster of footsteps followed.

"I don't like this. I bloody hate trolls."

"Shhh, Gunner." The one who led the company whispered. "Night vision."

"We don't see anything. Something or someone busted the automatic defense system."

"Geek? Scanner?" The leader asked.

"We lost one heat signature. The remaining one is…...ten feet beneath us. This junk can be busted."

"Don't let the tech-worshippers hear you say that." Gunner whispered in the dark.

"What do we do, Boss?" Geek asked.

"Comm the captain, tell him that."

"Message sent." Geek answered almost immediately.

"TRESPASSERS! THIEVES! MURDERS! KNEEL BEFORE ME!" Dolus's deep voice echoed through the station.

"Shit, what was that." Gunner loaded his machine gun and lifted it safely.

"WHERE ARE MY POSSESSIONS!"

"SHOW--YOUR--SELF" That was the captain's voice.

"WE--CAN--TALK. WE---KNOW---YOU---ARE---DOWN---THERE." The speakers on the train surely excelled at their work.

"Wait, they have that kind of detection tech now? Why can't they find you?" Dalang asked Dolus with his mind.

"I am, after all, a god of deception. They have no idea I am sitting on their train with them right now." Dolus responded.

"Are you gonna show up?" Dalang asked.

"Go make yourself a grand entrance, a scary one. I will do the talking. If they choose the hard way. I will take care of the train, you take care of what's out there. And remember, try your best no to kill anyone. I am not a war god nor a blood god."

"Gotcha."

A glowing golem busted out of the ground in front of the Sapiens.

Someone panicked and took a shot at him. Many more followed. Gunfire lit up the station and ricochets started to fly around. The poor captain tried to stop it, but the speaker was no match for the deafening echoed.

"O Shit, was that too scary?"

"Well, they started it."

Dalang started to wave his concrete arms at the crowd as they dumped lead on him.

On the train, Dolus started clubbing everyone with his serpent cane. His cloak makes him practically invisible to mortal eyes. And, it is completely bulletproof.

"This is making me feel a lot better." Dolus did enjoy the sound of broken bones and fearful screams.

Soon, the panic and the chaos took over. Friendly fire painted the train's interior sanguine.

In less than two minutes, two immortals incapacitated a whole company of Sapiens. Dolus broke every arm his cane had touched. Dalang gave almost everyone he encountered a concussion or broken bones.No one was able to raise an arm against them anymore and almost everyone was screaming in pain. Typical Norashu protocol against Sapien hostiles: beat them to submission, then talk with them for intel.

"Should I heal the ones that are barely hanging?" Dalang squatted down, stared at a dying Sapien, and asked.

"Nah, put them out of their misery. Don't chant anything or work any of your necromancies, though. Keep your dark craft out of my hallowed ground."

"They are Sapiens, their dead bodies are useless to me. They have no connection with divinity whatsoever, remember?"

"These three, however, I am obligated to heal. They put up a fight and gave me some trouble so I had to hit them harder to make sure they didn't get up.. May I get that divinity from you?"

"Yeah, I'll deduct that from your payment. You can do whatever makes you clear your conscience . "Fffffff--ine." Dalang answered with bitterness.

"Meanwhile, I'll find myself some answers. I wonder how many bones I have to break to get what I want." The horned monster's words would haunt those Sapiens for the rest of their lives.

"Now, who amongst you sorry lots knows anything about my stolen properties?"